MONTRÉAL -- Sunday was the second night of the
World Festival, Expo '67's entertainment program and it was also the happy
occasion of the opening of the second of three theatres in Montréal's Place des
Arts.

The Theatre Maisonneuve, a 1,290 seat beauty of a
theatre was inaugurated by a tribute to Antoine St-Exupery, the French authors
from whose writings the phrase "Man and His World" -- Expo's theme -- was
taken.

Jean Louis Barrault and his Theatre de France
were joined by Jean Gascon, Jean-Louis Roux and several members of the Theatre
de Nouveau Monde in a program of readings entitled St-Exupery et Les
Hommes, which roughly translates as St-Exupery on Man, for all of the readings
dealt with this writer's thoughts and feelings on man and his nature.

St-Exupery was born in 1900 and trained as a
pilot in his war service. Later he was a commercial airline pilot and returned
to military service for the Second World War. He failed to return from a mission
on July 31, 1944.

St-Exupery's writings stress the nobility and
grace of man particularly when man measures himself against nature. His novels
("The Little Prince," "Wind, Sand and Stars") exalted the courage and
indomitable spirit of man. He is an internal optimist and his seven books attest
to it.

Countess Consuelo De St-Exupery, who was in the
audience last night, has said of her late husband: "He dramatized everything. He
didn't tell life the way it happened, just the parts with action."

She said that "Le Petit Prince," her husband's
novel, was an allegory which was in reality, the story of his own
soul.

M. Barrault chose not to scenically "cover" the
readings from St-Exupery's works and he and the other 13 actors played in front
of black curtains. They used no props, only chairs and one table.

SEATS 1,300

The Theatre Maisonneuve is a gem. Beautifully
appointed in brown carpeting and orange rust seats, it boasts two balconies and
an orchestra that will seat nearly 1,300.

Theatre Maisonneauve is the second of three
theatres in the complex known as Place des Arts on downtown Montréal's St.
Catherine Street. The 800-seat Port-Royal Theatre will open officially June 3
with an appearance of the McGill Chamber Orchestra. Both theatres are connected
by tunnel to the 3,000-seat Salle Wilfred Pelletier.

Continental seating has been installed in the
Theatre Maisonneuve. This seating eliminates the centre aisles and allows for
greater leg room between the rows. Like most modern theatres this one, even
though it accommodates 1,300 people, is relatively intimate: the distance from
the stage to the back of the orchestra is 70 feet.

Sight lines and acoustics are excellent in both
the new theatres and their stages are huge. The Theatre Maisonneuve stage
measures 48 feet deep and is 152 feet wide. It has 20 trap doors. The
Port-Royal's depth is 57 feet, has a width of 152 feet and boasts a phenomenal
187 trap doors.

The orchestra pit in Theatre Maisonneuve
holds 50 musicians and can be raised hydraulically to stage level allowing
for the installation of an additional 58 seats.

The grid in the Theatre Maisonneuve is 85 feet
high and the proscenium opening is 65 feet wide.

The theatre has an extremely modern and
attractive foyer. It and the theatre proper were designed by Montréal architects
David, Barott and Bouiva.